1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring apparatus for tanks and the like, and particularly it relates to an apparatus for monitoring tanks of motor vehicles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The control of the quantity of fluid contained in a tank and of the modes of charge and discharge thereof is of noticeable importance, especially in the transport field. More typically, a careful control of the fuel consumption is a key factor in the cost control, and it is hence important to avoid that the fuel can be stolen. One of the main problems is due to the fact that the control of accesses to the tanks should be carried out independently of the driver, who may often be responsible, or at least partially responsible, for the fuel thefts performed to the detriment of the transport company. Therefore, it is not sufficient to just connect the means of access to the tank, i.e. the filler cap, to the vehicle's anti-theft device, as this device may still be switched off; more specifically there is a need for a filler cap provided with a device capable of signalling its state.
Systems which sense the presence or absence of a filler cap on the mouthpiece of a vehicle tank are already known in the art, for example from EP-B1-1052131; however, these systems are structured in such a way as to signal the opening state of the filler cap only to the interior of the vehicle, and furthermore there is currently no way of establishing when the opening took place and how long it lasted. During the research that led to the present invention, we have considered devices comprising an integrated microcontroller provided with an RFID interface and a non-volatile memory, which can be conveniently adapted according to the aforementioned requirements, so that information relative to the filler cap state can be both stored and transmitted.
Moreover, it would be useful, for a much more complete analysis of the history of the fluid contained in a tank, to have the possibility of monitoring also the actual content of the tank.